A rural minister's prediction that doomsday will come Dec. 25 has residents and law enforcement officials nervous that the minister will kill followers of his cultlike church.
Some former church members say the Rev. Jim Jones, pastor of the Spoken Word Tabernacle church, is planning to pre-maturely trigger the ascent of the faithful to heaven by killing the dozens of followers."We're dreading Christmas on account of it," Camp Verde Marshal Chuck Devine said. "We're sitting here very nervous and waiting."
Devine said his office received numerous calls that Jones, who has been charged with molesting two young followers, may be planning a mass killing. The marshal said he has been unable to substantiate the claims.
About 20 former followers picketed the church Sunday, demanding police protection. Some suggested Jones would try to poison followers at a service.
"We are tired of this man harassing us and attempting to use the people to poison us, to kill us, to make his prophecies come to pass," Mario Chagollo, Jones' former top assistant who recently left the church, told The Phoenix Gazette in a story published Wednesday.
Jones, 62, declined to comment, and his wife referred calls to his attorney, Dennis Jones of Phoenix, no relation.
Dennis Jones said disgruntled former members of the church are spreading rumors because they are involved in a power struggle.
"Reverend Jones, like all of us, recognizes he is a man," the attorney said. "All he is trying to do is work in the church right now. He and members of the church want to be let alone by outsiders so they can worship God and do what they believe in."
The Rev. Jim Jones coincidentally is the name of the Peoples Temple minister who led 912 followers in a mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978.
Jones was indicted last fall on two counts charging him with molesting teenage girls who were members of his church.
He remains free on $100,000 bail and is awaiting trial in Yavapai County Superior Court.
"From what I understand, he tells them (church members) he's not going to jail," said former follower Kenneth Leake, 32. "God's going to vindicate him.
"This is a sign of the end times," Leake said. "He will be vindicated by December 25th, and the whole situation will be over. He's 62 and facing the rest of his life in prison. It looks to me like his great exodus would be to make a point."
In 1989, Jones persuaded his 250-member congregation to move their church from Phoenix to Camp Verde, a town of 6,300 about 75 miles north of Phoenix. Members quit their jobs and sold their homes.
Former followers said half the congregation abandoned Jones when he was indicted.
"When people left the church, he said it was better to have them dead than go to hell," said former member Fred Patton. "When he was in tempers he'd say things like it'd be easier to cut their heads off than to deal with them."